1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of planters and plant carriers for holding a natural growing plant including its life supporting environment and, more particularly, to a novel plant carrier of this type having a moisture collection tray which is self-locating and releasably detachable to the underside of the carrier.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In the past, it has been the conventional practice to construct hanging or standing flower planters from wood or metal materials and shaped in such a fashion as to hold the plant and surrounding moist soil. Difficulties have been encountered with these conventional planters which stem largely from the fact that the moisture in the soil progresses to the bottom of the planter and does not evenly distribute throughout the soil or soil mixture. Some attempts have been made to avoid this problem by providing holes in the bottom of the planter and by incorporating an integrally formed tray for collecting the water once it has passed through the soil. Since cleaning of the tray is extremely difficult when it is attached to the carrier, some prior art devices include a detachable cup-like member which collects the water and which may be readily removed for cleaning purposes followed by reattachment to the underside of the planter or plant carrier. Such a device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,524.
Although the detachable cup-like portion is detachably connected, as shown in the prior art device and which is successful for its intended purpose, the device includes four projections which require indexing and mating with four holes before attachment can take place. In most instances, persons attempting the attachment will index the cup-like portion with the tray by aligning a projection on the tray with a hole in the cup-like portion. Next, the user must twist or revolve the tray in either a counterclockwise or a clockwise direction until the projections mate with the holes in the sidewall of the cup-like portion before securement will take place.
Alignment problems have been experienced by users whereby the projections do not readily align with their respective or associated holes and such causes an inconvenience to the user.
Therefore, a long standing need has been present to provide a plant carrier having a removable tray which may be readily located or indexed to the underside of the planter with greater convenience than can otherwise be gained using such devices as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,524.